Cultivating the Molten Frost Spirit Vein Body! Transforming Alongside the Insect Cocoon!

"Finally... it's done."

Li Zhixian wiped the sweat from his brow and let out a slow breath.

Brewing the Ice Flame Immortal Dew had been far more difficult than he had imagined.

Even with his experience brewing Snake Saliva Rice Soul, he had still gone through countless failures.

"But it was worth it."

"In the end, I got what I wanted."

His gaze fell upon the immortal dew before him, and the wine bug in Li Zhixian's belly was already stirring impatiently.

The liquor was like translucent colored glaze—icy blue on the left, crimson on the right. When still, it resembled the twin fish of taiji slowly circling one another.

And because its temperature was strange and unpredictable,

Li Zhixian took a piece of dark stone from beside the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Eye and hollowed out a simple stone cup to hold it.

"This has been tormenting me!"

"Let me have a taste first!"

He extended a finger, Soul Power bursting from his fingertip and lifting the red-and-blue immortal brew into the air before sending it straight into his mouth.

"Mm?!"

The instant the liquor touched his tongue,

Li Zhixian's eyes flew wide open. It was as though lava surged down his throat, and a strange sulfurous blaze erupted with a boom, its scorching heat spreading wildly through his mouth.

Having never tasted anything like it before, he could not help nodding repeatedly.

However,

when that ball of "flame" slid into his stomach, it instantly turned into an icy current.

It was so cold that he shuddered, his mouth filled with the crisp, chilly fragrance of snow cedar.

The words "fine wine" had barely left his lips when a sudden change occurred!

After entering his stomach, the liquor split into two, transforming into crimson flames and cold frost that violently collided within his meridians!

The two violent energies crashed together and scattered.

A layer of ice crystals and molten patterns immediately formed over his meridians.

"This must be the process of cultivating the Molten Frost Spirit Vein Body!"

"The Brewing Record says that the Molten Frost Spirit Vein Body is extraordinarily powerful, which is why one must drink Ice Flame Immortal Dew for three consecutive years to cultivate it successfully!"

"But I won't need that long!"

"Using the Ice Flame Immortal Dew as the medicinal catalyst, taking the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and Infernal Delicate Apricot together, then immersing myself in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Eye to temper my body—I can forge the most perfect Molten Frost Spirit Vein Body!"

A flash of sword light appeared.

Two peerless immortal flowers were severed from their stalks.

Without hesitation, Li Zhixian stuffed both Immortal Herbs into his mouth.

Then, holding the dark stone wine cup, he leaped into the sharply divided boundary of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Eye.

Splash—

The instant he hit the water,

Li Zhixian let out a muffled groan.

Excruciating pain descended like a torrential storm from the heavens.

The power of extreme cold froze his blood, coating even his internal organs with white frost, while his meridians felt as though they were being scorched by earthfire. His skin began to carbonize and peel away in horrifying flakes.

Catalyzed by the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Eye, the medicinal powers of the Infernal Delicate Apricot and Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass transformed into two vast currents of ice and fire energy that crashed madly through his body.

Crack—

Crack—

His bones could no longer bear the strain, splitting with countless fissures.

Ice and fire energy poured through the cracks in his bones, scouring them again and again.

Pain!

Bone-eroding, heart-piercing pain!

It hurt so much that his soul nearly scattered!

With every last shred of clarity, Li Zhixian struggled to raise an arm. Charred fragments of skin showered down from it.

Yet he still drained the Ice Flame Immortal Dew in one gulp.

Blazing flames and freezing frost battled savagely within him.

More and more ice crystals and molten patterns branded themselves onto his increasingly translucent meridians.

That battered body, riddled with wounds, somehow reached a delicate balance amid the destruction of ice and fire and the restoration of the immortal dew.

Time quietly passed.

Under this ultimate tempering of ice and fire, Li Zhixian's body underwent a rebirth-like transformation.

At the same time, a cocoon woven from icy blue and fiery red threads, hanging from a branch above the spring and touched by Li Zhixian's aura, began to tremble softly.

Morning light drove away the stars.

Then the stars sent away the dawn.

Three days passed in the blink of an eye.

Within the Two Forms Eye, where searing heat and icy cold intertwined, Li Zhixian sat in silent meditation like a withered tree.

If one were to look within him now, one would be horrified to see:

The meridians on the left half of his body were crimson like flowing lava, while those on the right were deep blue like a frozen glacier.

A vast energy where ice and fire merged formed a red-and-blue cocoon of light around him.

Whoosh—

A gentle breeze swept past.

Crack—

Crack—

The sounds of breaking rang out almost simultaneously.

Spiderweb-like cracks appeared at the same time across the surface of the light cocoon in the spring and the insect cocoon on the tree.

Pieces of the light cocoon peeled away, revealing a perfect body within, pale and lustrous as jade, its muscles and bones perfectly proportioned.

On the branch, a butterfly broke free from its cocoon and unfurled a pair of bewitching wings, one blue and one red.

Li Zhixian's skin, flesh, bones, organs, and meridians all faintly revealed magnificent spiritual patterns interwoven in red and blue.

His expression was peaceful and serene. The boiling hot spring and bone-chilling ice spring now felt like warm water to him.

With every breath, he alternately exhaled frost mist and sparks.

His eyes snapped open!

His left pupil was crimson like a furnace, his right icy blue like an abyss!

The strange phenomenon vanished in a flash, and everything instantly returned to normal!

Splash—

Li Zhixian slowly rose from the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Eye.

The butterfly on the tree gracefully spread its wings, lightly flying down to dance around him.

A faint smile touched Li Zhixian's lips. He naturally extended a finger, and the butterfly obediently landed on his fingertip.

"You and I have undergone this transformation together. I suppose that makes us fated."

"Meetings and partings are like drifting clouds. Stay or leave as your heart desires. May you be free of all bonds and roam the world as you please."

"Go on."

The butterfly beat its wings, circled him twice, then finally transformed into a streak of light and flew toward the vast horizon.

Li Zhixian stepped out of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Eye.

One step.

His left foot touched the ground, and his footprint turned into scorched earth.

Another step.

His right foot came down, and his footprint froze into frost.

Only when he reached the wooden hut and put on the plain white robe he had prepared beforehand did the various strange phenomena gradually fade away.

He looked at his fair palm.

With a thought, red-and-blue spiritual patterns flickered beneath his skin.

"The Molten Frost Spirit Vein Body... is complete."

Without external attacks of ice and fire attributes,

Li Zhixian could not yet truly experience just how mysterious a physique that could "immunize against and absorb the power of ice and fire" truly was.

But merely being able to soak in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Eye as though it were a hot spring already spoke for itself.

And that was not all...

A powerful wave of Soul Power rippled from his body.

Li Zhixian's Soul Power had astonishingly reached level twenty-nine.

Li Zhixian casually beckoned.

He drew over a dark stone that had been scoured by ice and fire.

His five fingers slowly closed, and the dark stone, harder than refined iron, crumbled into powder in his palm and scattered with the wind.

"In terms of physical strength alone, even ordinary Soul Ancestors are inferior to me."

Li Zhixian was highly satisfied with the Molten Frost Spirit Vein Body.

A joyful heart called for good wine to heighten the mood.

"Heh, it's time for my Wine Spirit to evolve too!"

Li Zhixian poured the half-cup of Ice Flame Immortal Dew he had saved into the Clear Spring Wine Gourd.

Whoosh—

Whoosh—

Icy-blue and fiery-red radiant clouds flickered from the gourd's mouth.

A rich fragrance of wine, almost tangible and containing extreme cold and warmth, instantly spread through the mountain hollow.

And on the jade-like body of the celadon gourd, a taiji pattern, half icy blue and half crimson, slowly emerged.

Li Zhixian casually lifted the hem of his white robe and sat on the bank of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Eye.

One of his feet soaked in the hot spring, the other in the cold spring.

He eagerly raised the gourd and drank deeply.

In an instant,

countless flavors, accompanied by an indescribable mellow aroma, surged straight into his Spirit Platform.

"Fine wine, fine wine!"

He swung his feet in the ice and fire, drinking mouthful after mouthful, completely forgetting himself.

The Wine Spirit was now an exceptionally potent liquor, rare in the world. Even Li Zhixian, such a devoted lover of wine, soon found his eyes hazy with drunkenness.

A hundred tangled emotions welled up in his heart.

In the end, they settled on the unforgettable feeling of cultivating the Molten Frost Spirit Vein Body.

A tiny Azure Lotus Sword Seal quietly emerged between his brows, with faint icy-blue and fiery-red light glimmering along either side of its blade.

Clang—!

A clear sword cry suddenly rang out.

The Azure Lotus Sword appeared on its own.

Then the sword blade turned and plunged directly into the depths of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Eye.

Watching the Azure Lotus Sword disappear beneath the Two Forms Eye, recalling the ordeal of having his body tempered by ice and fire, a flash of Spirit Light crossed Li Zhixian's mind.

His motion of raising the gourd to drink froze.

He let the red-and-blue liquor run down from the corner of his mouth.

He remained seated there in a daze beside the spring where ice and fire mingled.

In his eyes was reflected that wondrous sight of eternal opposition, yet mutual coexistence, between ice and fire.

The sun rose and the moon set. Another two days passed.

Li Zhixian looked utterly exhausted, his eyes bloodshot.

As they said, one could not live without becoming possessed.

There was still a truth he had yet to understand, and he had fallen into a kind of confusion.

That day,

a fierce wind swept through the mountain hollow.

It stirred whirlpools across the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Eye.

Where the hot spring and cold spring met, the crimson flames and frost did not annihilate one another. Instead, they formed a chaotic column of energy spiraling upward.

The wild wind tossed his hair about. Witnessing the sight, light gradually returned to Li Zhixian's unfocused eyes.

He suddenly threw back his head and laughed.

"Hahahaha!"

"I understand! I understand!

"Water and fire clash? What utter nonsense!"

"The world sees only water and fire clashing, but fails to see..."

"Frost burns into mist, flames condense into crystals. Yin and yang root in each other—that is the true principle of heaven and earth!"

"The Azure Lotus Sword Song Second Style is right before my eyes!"

This is way too hard to write. There's still one more chapter in progress... I took the morning off...